SK Telecom T1 is a Korean professional gaming team based in South Korea. Previously, the SK Telecom organization sponsored two sister teams, S and K. SK Telecom T1 is the only team to have won the World Championship three times and is also the only team to hold an unofficial "Triple Crown" - in May 2016 they became the reigning champions of IEM, the Mid-Season Invitational, and Worlds though those titles were not all achieved in the same season, before they successfully being the first ever team to defend their World Championship title.

Biography

Season 3

In December 2012, SK Telecom acquired the roster of Eat Sleep Game, with a roster consisting of Reapered, H0R0, MighTiLy, UandME, and StarLast. See the history of that team at SK Telecom T1 S (originally SK Telecom T1, then SK Telecom T1 #1). In February 2013, the organization created a new roster, which consisted of Faker, bengi, Piglet, PoohManDu, and Impact. See the history of that team at SK Telecom T1 K (originally SK Telecom T1 #2). On November 12th, the sister teams were renamed from #1 and #2 to S and K, respectively. Though it was initially known as SK Telecom's secondary team, K outperformed S, winning the Season 3 World Championship. Upon their return to Korea, SKT T1 K became the only team to have a perfect season (not losing a single game) in Champions Winter 2013-2014.

2014 Season

SK Telecom competed in LoL Masters 2014. The organization had a 6-0 set record in the round robin, with a 14-4 game record. In the playoffs, they were seeded directly into the finals but then lost 0-3 to Samsung, placing second overall. Although SKT T1 K won All-Star Paris 2014 with out losing a single game, both SKT teams failed to make Worlds at the end of the season.

2015 Season

In November 2014, it was announced that Korean teams could no longer have two separate rosters, and SK Telecom T1's teams disbanded, reforming a single team simply called SK Telecom T1. As with all other OGN teams, they would have a 10-member roster. The team was invited to play in Champions Spring 2015. On December 2nd, a roster was announced for the preseason that included MaRin, Impact, Bengi, Easyhoon, Faker, Bang, Wolf, and Piccaboo. Of these players, Piccaboo was the only new addition; the other seven players had previously competed on either S or K.

SKT entered their first tournament of the 2015 Season at SBENU Champions Spring 2015. They placed second in the regular season so they had to face CJ Entus in the second round of playoffs and took the series 3-2. They went on to play the KOO Tigers where they took the series 3-0 without Faker or Bengi having to play. The win secured them a spot at the 2015 Mid-Season Invitational where they won every game in groups. After a close 3-2 series against Fnatic, they moved on to face EDward Gaming in the finals where SKT was upset 3-2.

They came back to Korea for SBENU Champions Summer 2015 where they went almost undefeated, only dropping a series to CJ Entus. Their first place finish in the regular season guaranteed them a spot at the 2015 Season World Championship due to having the most Championship Points. In the finals of the playoffs they beat KT Rolster 3-0 to take 1st place in playoffs and advance to the 2015 Season World Championship as the first seed from Korea.

SKT was placed in a group at worlds alongside EDG, Bangkok Titans, and H2k Gaming. They went undefeated all the way to the finals, beating AHQ e-Sports Club and Origen in the playoffs along the way. They met the KOO Tigers in the finals and beat them 3-1 to give the organization its second World Championship.

2016 Season

Two weeks after the World Championship, SK Telecom played in the LoL KeSPA Cup. In their semifinal series against Challenger team Ever, substitute mid laner Scout started in the first game, but even with Faker playing in the second game, the team lost the series 0-2 - continuing a streak of World Champions being eliminated early on in their first tournaments after Worlds. SK Telecom announced Faker's re-signing for the 2016 season after the tournament. However, shortly afterwards, Easyhoon, T0M, and MaRin left the team. SKT's offseason acquisitions included NaJin's top laner Duke, relatively new jungler Blank, and their former support PoohManDu as a coach.

In March, SK Telecom attended IEM Katowice despite being only the sixth-place LCK team at the time. They brought substitute jungler Blank in place of bengi and swept through the tournament, winning the title after only seven games. Returning to Korea, they began to use Blank as their full-time starting jungler and improved from a series record of 5-4 after week 7 to 12-6 after week 13, behind only the Tigers and KT Rolster in the standings. In the playoffs, they easily beat Jin Air and KT before facing the ROX Tigers for the second time in a spring finals. This time, instead of a 3-0 it was a 3-1, but SKT still won and were crowned LCK champions for the third consecutive time.

Their first place finish in the spring season earned them a spot in the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational. Notably, SK Telecom T1 were the only team to return to 2016 MSI from 2015 MSI. As the reigning domestic champions of Korea, SK Telecom T1 came into the tournament as massive favorites to win. However, their group stage performances were very lackluster as they dropped games to China's Royal Never Give Up, NA's Counter Logic Gaming, and two games to the LMS Flash Wolves. They ended their group stage with a 6-4 record, seeding them into the bracket stage at fourth place. Matched up against Royal Never Give Up in the semifinals, SK Telecom started to regain their form, beating them 3-1. They then proceeded to beat Counter Logic Gaming 3-0 to win the event and give them the trophy that barely escaped them last year.

During the 2016 LCK Summer Split, SK Telecom started the season strong with a 5-0 score in series and 10-0 game score. However, they started dropping sets to lower ranked teams, notably the Afreeca Freecs, who they failed to win even a single game against the entire season. With a 13-5 scoreline in series, SKT placed second in the round robin, beating KT Rolster via game score tiebreaker. However, during the 2016 LCK Summer Playoffs, they met KT Rolster in the semifinals, where they were reverse swept 3-2 after going up 2-0 in the first two games. This gave them third place for the summer split. Combined with their first place spring finish, as well as the victory of the ROX Tigers over KT Rolster, SKT qualified to the 2016 Season World Championship on points as Korea's second seed.

At the 2016 Season World Championship, SK Telecom T1 were placed into Group B, along with LMS's Flash Wolves, NA's Cloud 9, and China's I May. The team proceeded to win five of the six games during the Group Stage, as they displayed a vast arsenal of team compositions and fielded both Bengi and Blank in the jungle position. They were drafted into the Quarterfinals against the Chinese Royal Never Give Up, the second place team of Group D. After beating RNG 3-1, they proceeded to the semifinals where they met the ROX Tigers. After a long and grueling five games, where ROX won two of them with a surprise Miss Fortune support, SKT won 3-2 in what host Dash called the greatest best of five at Worlds ever. They moved on to face Samsung Galaxy in the Grand Finals: after a long, hard-fought 3-2 series SKT became the first League of Legends team to win three World Championships and first repeat winners of the title of World Champions.